Witness in Our Time, Second Edition: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers

289 Pages·2010·3.55 MB·English

© 2000, 2010 by Ken Light
Introduction © 2000 by Kerry Tremain
All rights reserved
The text in this book is based on interviews conducted by Ken Light with support from an Erna
and Victor Hasselblad Foundation grant.
The interviews were edited by Ken Light, Melanie Light, and Kerry Termain.
COPY EDITOR: Lise Sajewski
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Light, Ken.
Witness in our time : working lives of documentary photographers / Ken Light ; introduction by
Kerry Tremain. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58834306-2
1. Photographers—Interviews. 2. Documentary photography. 3. Photojournalism.
I. Title.
TR139.L54 2010
770.92′2—dc22 2010031643
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available
For permission to reproduce illustrations appearing in this book, please correspond directly with
the owners of the works, as listed in the individual captions. Smithsonian Books does not retain
reproduction rights for these illustrations individually, or maintain a file of addresses for photo
sources.
v3.1_r1
For Stanley Light, my father,
who gave me my first camera and taught me about the human condition,
and Melanie Light, my wife,
who has been patient, reassuring, and wise.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Seeing and Believing
KERRY TREMAIN
Photographers
Hansel Mieth: The Depression and the Early Days of Life
Walter Rosenblum: Lewis Hine, Paul Strand, and the Photo League
Michelle Vignes: Magnum Photo Agency: The Early Years
Wayne Miller: World War II and the Family of Man
Peter Magubane: A Black Photographer in Apartheid South Africa
Matt Herron: The Civil Rights Movement and the Southern
Documentary Project
Jill Freedman: Resurrection City
Mary Ellen Mark: Streetwise Photographer
Earl Dotter: The United Mine Workers
Eugene Richards: Americans We
Susan Meiselas: Central America and Human Rights
Sebastião Salgado: Workers
Graciela Iturbide: The Indigenous of Mexico
Antonin Kratochvil: The Fall of the Iron Curtain
Donna Ferrato: Living with the Enemy: Domestic Violence
Joseph Rodriguez: In the Barrio
Dayanita Singh: A Truer India
Fazal Sheikh: Portrait of a Refugee
Editors and Curators
Gifford Hampshire: The Environmental Protection Agency’s Project
DOCUMERICA
Peter Howe: Life Magazine and Outtakes
Colin Jacobson: Independent Magazine and Reportage
Anne Wilkes Tucker: The Museum Context
Fred Ritchin: The Fish are Last to Know about the Water: The
Emerging Digital Revolution
In the Field
Rondal Partridge: Dorothea Lange in the Field
Don McCullin: Vietnam: The Battle of Hue, 1968
Bill Owens: Suburbia and a Passion for Seeing His World
Larry Fink: Social Graces
David Goldblatt: Once an Enemy: Apartheid and the New South
Africa
Maya Goded: Tierra Negra
Afterword: Witness in Our Time
KEN LIGHT
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
The second edition of Witness in Our Time would not have been possible
without the support, comments, discussion, and editing by Melanie
Light, my wife and partner. She generously allowed me to bounce ideas
off of her, argue with her, and always gave wise, thoughtful feedback
despite my stubbornness. Without her support this book would not have
been possible. My daughter, Allison, was always present with a smile
and a “How was your day, Daddy?” and then attentively listened to my
reply, which is a wonderful gift from a teenager busy with her own
active world.
A generous grant from the Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation
originally supported my travel and my time to conduct interviews with
the photographers, and a grant from the National Press Photographers
Research Foundation (NPPA) gave a much-needed boost. Without this
support I might have never originally undertaken this project.
The first edition could not have happen without my colleague and co-
conspirator Kerry Tremain, nor would it be in its present narrative form,
or graced with such an insightful introduction. As we began this updated
edition, Kerry’s original introduction still rang true. The research he did
for the first edition, and his collaboration on the biographies that
introduce those interviews made the 2000 edition more readable. Our
conversations and his editing skills, passion, and faith in the ideals of
documentary photography were a welcome breath of fresh air and made
a critical contribution to the book’s final form.
Many have given to this work. Amy Pastan, my former acquisitions
editor at the Smithsonian Institution Press, first agreed to the publication
of this manuscript and nurtured it into draft form. My thanks to Mark
Hirsch, former senior editor at the Smithsonian Institution Press, on
whose desk this project landed as a book without a home. His
unwavering support restored it back to health and finally to its present
form. The first edition editor, Robert Poarch, and designer, Janice
Wheeler, both helped create a more dynamic publication.
Over the years, as Witness in Our Time has been adopted by colleges
and read by thousands of photo students and documentary
photographers, I wondered what would become of this book as huge
changes impacted the photo world. To my surprise, Carolyn Gleason,
director of Smithsonian Books, asked me if I might revise the book.
Christina Wiginton stepped in as editor, and it has been a great pleasure
to have such an enthusiastic supporter of this work.
Many thanks to the photographers who took their precious time to
answer my questions and who were so very patient, offering photos,
reviewing text, and correcting mistakes that can so often happen in a
recorded interview.
My students and assistants at University of California, Berkeley
Graduate School of Journalism—Doreen Bowens, Jill David, Matt Golec,
Christina Koenig, Kimberly Lisagor, Matt McClesky, and Sophia Ray—
helped with the tedious transcriptions of the recorded interviews and
indexing in the first edition. Fortunately Ananda Shorey stepped forward
to do the transcriptions in the new edition, and proved to be accurate
and quick, making my job that much easier.
My colleagues at the graduate school have continued to inspire me,
and Neil Henry, dean of the school, has been a great supporter of the
photography program and my work. My intern and assistant Max Cohen
has helped me at every turn and given me insights about the next
generation. My friend Jay Berg offered his apartment on my visits to
New York to use as a home base for some of the interviews.
This book originally started with my colleague and friend Kim
Komenich as we bemoaned the lack of a text for our students from which
they might gain insight into the lives and work of documentary
photographers. Long after we took separate paths toward this goal, he
remained a steadfast supporter and cheerleader for this project’s
completion.
Finally to the readers who have shared this book with others, and to
all of those working to keep the documentary tradition alive, thank you.
Ken Light
Thanks to Valerie McGuire for researching the biographies. For reading
and commenting on the edits and introduction, thanks to Mike Feeback,
Carl Fleischhauer, Melanie Light, Joe Loya, Brad Matsen, Susan Meiselas,
Joshua Phillips, Jon Polansky, Barbara Ramsey, Fred Ritchin, Bill Smock,
Marilyn Snell, Patti Wolter, and especially to Jane Melnick, who first
ignited my interest in documentary photography, and Peter Solomon,
master wordsmith.
Kerry Tremain
Introduction
Seeing and Believing
KERRY TREMAIN
I
hen mujahedin soldiers captured Antonin Kratochvil in
WAfghanistan, where he traveled in 1978 to photograph their war
with the Russians, one of them pressed the barrel of an AK-47 rifle into
Kratochvil’s temple, read his passport, and shouted to the others that
their prisoner was born in Czechoslovakia. The mujahedin knew
Czechoslovakia. Czechs manufactured Russian guns. The soldier told the
photographer he was going to blow his brains out.
Ironically, Kratochvil had risked his life to escape communist
Czechoslovakia eleven years earlier. While still a teenager, he had
walked to the Czech-Austrian border, a coil of barbed wire in a swath of
fine gravel raked to allow the police patrol to track trespassers’ footsteps.
A friend of his had been killed nearby. In the dark he crawled under the
barbed wire on his belly. Upright, euphoric, he spit on the Czech side of
a stone that marked the border.
In Afghanistan Kratochvil sat silently while a guide he had hired just a
few hours before pleaded furiously with them to spare the photographer.
“He is not a spy; he hates the Soviets. He will tell the world about your
revolution. You know my cousin who fixed your truck.”
For two hours, the guide begged. Finally, the mujahedin fighter
lowered his rifle and freed Kratochvil.